TAJ!!

This was my first view of the Taj. Taj Mahal.

At the Taj, visitors just go beserk. Everyone just want to picture the monument, nobody is really interested in the history, the sadness that surrounds it.

Taj is like Madhubala and Madhuri Dixit. We watch them for what we see and not what they are.

The importance of Pink Chaddis on Valentine's Day

On quite a few occasions I have smirked at burqa clad Muslim women in India and abroad.

I saw this marwari lady at Taj Mahal's entry gate. I was amazed the way she had hid her face in her 'pallu'(veil). Infact, this pic has been captured after she realised that I was clicking her pic and she desperately tried to see my face but was not keen to lift her pallu. If you look closely, you can observe that she is looking at me from the pallu.

Anyway, I am amazed by the fact that though Hindu traditions are equally regressive as the muslims, especially towards women, many hindus conveniently forget such aspects of our culture when there is a debate on hindu-muslim culture or traditions.

Pramod Muthalik and his goons are no less regressive than the Talibanese who throw acid on school going girls in Afghanistan.

While I am against the excesses done these days in the name of Valentine's Day, beating up women is against the culture of any religion.

The Pink Chaddi campaign - http://thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/ is a slap on the face of the Muthaliks of the world. Somewhere it makes us aware of the sense of despair, powerlessness and frustration that women (of India) have harboured against (the strong arm tactics of) men. The Internet and the Pink Chaddi campaign has provided that outlet.

Its a shame, that women who are actually at the receiving end (i.e. like the one pictured above) may have no access to internet and fail to participate in this national movement.

Personally, I would have loved to send and Pink Chaddi with a hole it its back side to the Ram Sene guys!

Let freedom be freedom of thought and not freedom from thoughts.

Economics v/s Religion

I saw them outside the Fatehpur Skiri. They were carving 'Om' out of white marble in freezing cold. I asked them, "Why Om?". They said, "Thats what sells."

Economics, if rightly positioned, can win against organised religion based divides, whether Hindu or Muslim.

Memories

Just located them on the disk, pics of my Harvard days. Its amazing, feels like years ago...

The one with Vijay Tendulkar is for keeps!! I attended his lecture at MIT. He was awesome. He said that at the fag end of his life he has realised that nobody has really understood his writing, even his closest friends. He was sad and completely crest fallen at this discovery some years ago during a casual talk with his close friend on his literature. He then got into the habit of checking it with his readers and everytime it confirmed his worst fears! Its painful.

I was lucky to have met him personally. He permitted me to click a pic with him.

Someday I hope to go back to Boston to just hang around on Mass Ave, Boston Beer Works, Harvard Square...its magical!

Dilli!!

This new years I went around Delhi & Agra. 7 days. Clicked more thn 2000 pics. Have edited the better looking ones and am starting to upload in batches from now on.

Delhi is majestic and powerful, but not the one which Sheila Dixit has 'renovated' and that which has won her the 3rd consecutive CM's term.

I am referring to the majestic aura and power of the other Delhi that was built by the mughals and british.

Its big, its huge, yet its understated.

There are no pubs and discos here, but the buzz is infectious. The food is awesome, the paan is worth dying for, there is 'tehzeeb' in the way they speak. The women here are 'lajawaab' and manliness is not about eve-teasing or rape - but about deftly wearing a saree to make a lady buy more from their shop!!

I loved this Delhi, which some fools call "Old Delhi". Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra calls it Delhi 6. I agree. It is actually like a Yuvraj Singh's 6, it makes you feel heady.